Interview with Kenny Cheung

I must confess that the first time I knew about Kenny was through the video of the flash 8 clubs. Here you can see it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BeOQ8Z_vjM) And I was astonished because very few people have been able to do that.

Then I found out that he participated in the WJF (World Juggling Federation) and gave him all my support. He was my favorite on those competitions.

I was wondering how it all went, how he felt being there, so here’s the amazing interview.

1.Tell us about yourself

My name is Kenny Cheung and I’m from Sydney, Australia. I’ve been juggling since 2008 and I mainly do traditional toss juggling. I enjoy pushing the limits in technical juggling and seeing how far I can go. Besides juggling, I enjoy traveling, reading, jogging and playing other sports.

I started juggling by picking up three tennis balls over the Summer break in 2008 trying to teach myself how to juggle 3 balls. I stumbled across some websites which had animations on the 3 ball cascade. In a few hours, I was able to qualify the pattern and I just kept going.

3. Tell us about your career so far

I perform occasionally in my hometown in Sydney in a variety of events and I also enjoy teaching juggling workshops to children. I’m still studying at university so my juggling is only a side career for now.

There are many jugglers that I have looked up to over the years. In the beginning, I enjoyed watching videos of Vova Galchenko, Anthony Gatto, Jason Garfield, Thomas Dietz and Toby Walker. I was fascinated with the technical juggling they were capable of doing and it inspired me to improve my juggling. I have too many favourite jugglers now because there are hundreds of jugglers I enjoy watching in conventions and in online video, all for different reasons.

5. Tell us about your participation in the WJF

I participated in the WJF for the first time for its 12th annual convention. I had a fantastic time meeting a lot of other jugglers from several countries. I enjoyed filming videos with the people there and collaborated with others in some fun projects. I also competed in the Advanced Overall Championship and other competitions. I was pretty happy with the juggling I was able to perform during the competitions and in the end, I came 1st in Isolated 7 Balls Endurance, 1st in Low 360s Championship and 3rd in the Advanced Overall Championship.

6. Tell us a little about your future projects

My future projects will be the IJA Tricks of the Month for February 2017, making lots of Instagram videos including collaborating with other jugglers, and making some YouTube videos in the long run.

There are lots of jugglers who inspire me because there are too many different styles of juggling. Vova Galchenko inspires me to do hard tricks with club juggling. Ofek Snir inspires me to work on 1080s. Wes Peden inspires me to explore fun tricks with 3 clubs as well as technical juggling. Jon Brady inspires me to do 5 club backcrosses. Those are just a few examples.

8. Tell us about your training, how many hours do you train, your method.

I train a bit inside/outside my house. There’s a weekly juggling club that I attend that is held inside a church hall. Usually, I hire an indoor space such as my local basketball courts to train in. I try to train at least 10 hours a week. I don’t have a list of things that I train every time I practise but I always enjoy practising a variety of tricks.

9. Practice makes perfect so put in the hours and you will see the results. It’s all about hard work. Remember to warm up and stretch before, during and after you practice. I find doing stretches on my wrists, arms, neck and legs quite useful before I start juggling to prevent sore muscles and injuries. Take regular breaks, drink water and don’t overdo it. Lastly, learn the tricks that you enjoy and never force yourself to learn something you don’t like doing. It’s a lot more fun finding certain tricks and style of juggling that you actually like to do. Have fun and keep juggling

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